English: The Language
English.
It may be difficult for some people to learn. But it is our national language.
Not Spanish.
Not other languages.
I must give Yao Ming props, as he has been sans translator for a while now. He has been "working" in the US for the last 3 years, and he has progressed.
This should not be the exception.
I lived in Japan, and I learned Japanese. Granted I took some classes in high school and college, but they were no more than introductory classes. However, after a year I required very little help- and then it was only with more complicated procedures (banking, government documents, etc).
Now, I am not absolutely exceptional at anything except for taste in music. I hate the lack of English learning that goes on out there. Learn or move.
I also hate the native tongue pronunciation of names and places on the news. Gu-chi-eh-rrrezzz? Not in English buddy. Gooti- ehrz. (Gutierrez) Do I run around saying "Kaw-raw-Oh-kay" or "Kaw-raw-tay"? No! I live in America. In America we speak English, we intentionally pronounce foreign names and titles differently because IT IS NOT OUR NATIVE LANGUAGE. On that note... using foreign languages for humor and/or fun is great. Please continue to do that if you are currently doing it. Jikai made, minesan mata ne.
*Spanglish may actually be a good movie, I can't say I have seen it.
posted by mikeandtim @ 9:26:00 AM
6 Comments:
I am this way because I have traveled.. I just want us to have our separate American culture.
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Intense replies from the camstine_justinille camp. My frustration is primarily based in 3 areas:
1- The American Education System
2- Having to deal with people in the work place who take 10x as long to communicate with because they don't speak English well.
3- News reporters who obviously live in America, have been raised in America, and pronounce their name in a non-English accent.
Education
I don't think anyone will argue with the point that we have dumbed-down the educational requirements in this country to a ridiculous level. Learn how to spell.
Business
If you don't know the words Watt, Ohm, Volt, Amp (ampere), Contactor, Relay, Celsius, Farenheit, Flow Rate, Insulator, or Thermal.. you do not need to be doing industrial engineering work for anyone. Unfortunately, this goes back to point 1. We seem to not be able to train enough decent engineers in this country, so we have to import them... so this is actually more of a piggyback to point 1. I am only talking about the industry I work in, but I know for a fact it extends beyond that.
News Reporters
They're pretentious. There is nothing wrong with other languages, and I am not too stupid to use a proper accent or proper pronunciation. I worked hard to lose as much of my accent as I could when I learned Japanese or Spanish. The way I pronounce "Gutierrez" IS correct- for an English speaker in an English speaking country.
Also, I said nothing about kicking people out and closing our borders. Beat your pinata to death, just do it in English. And well... I do think we should close our borders. It's like a leaky tire. Patch the holes and then fill the tire again... we have enough problems that need "patching" before we should allow anymore people into the country.
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